5 Mistakes of Real Estate firms in Nigeria

It seems to me that every once in a while we see new realtors come into the real estate industry and at the same time we see droves of them leave. I’ve been wondering to myself, why is this? What makes the ones who stay survive and what makes the others leave?

1. No clear cut difference between marketing and sales: Real estate is a people empowering business and not just a numbers business. You need to desire to help people to own their own spaces. It’s not all about the numbers (it’s big business when you cash in) but a strong yearning to get people to own their own spaces on whatever budget they have would really go a long way. To meet the needs and wants of your target is what marketing is about while sales is the act of selling a product or service for money. Realtors in Nigeria would rather be sales people than marketing people; this isn’t kosher.
2. Not keeping in touch enough: Some realtors are only concerned about the commissions they’ll earn. Yes, that’s important but you need to realize that’s only secondary. Relationship building is what is most important because without clients, you can’t make a sale. People will only refer you if you were a solution to their problems. If you don’t keep in touch with them, when a friend has a similar problem, you’ll be forgotten!
3. Confusing being busy with work: Hey, you need to organize yourself as a realtor; that means you need to know which leads to follow and which ones to refer to a friend. If a potential client doesn’t fall into your target market, why not refer the client to a colleague in the industry you know who can handle the client’s brief? Though, you should make sure such a client’s needs are met eventually. You cannot do a good job if you don’t focus. You can’t do everything: decide on a market, research extensively on their needs and do all you can to satisfy them. 
4. No eagerness for multiple leads: granted, everybody’s modus operandi is different but if you don’t prospect or generate leads daily, how do you survive in this industry? Real estate is an industry where deals are not always closed immediately but can take even as long as 24months (if you are into development) to complete. So why are you just sitting around rather than generating leads? You ask how – social media of course! The world is now a global marketplace. You need to take advantage of the possibilities of 1 billion people on facebook,, 500 million users of twitter, flickr’s 51 million registered members and 80 million unique visitors and 100million people on LinkedIn! The possibilities are endless. If you don’t know anything about all these, you can hire someone (like yours truly). 
5. Self-improvement and training: How can you better yourself? Do you appraise yourself every quarter or do you allow just the commissions you make dictate if you are doing great or not? An excellent realtor never stops learning as change is constant. If your marketing and customer relationship skills are good, they can always be better so create avenues to learn and improve yourself.

There are other factors that need addressing; please let me know (sharing is important too!)